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Every month a few hundred new computer virii are found. Now with the Internet, computers are even more prone to virus attacks. Anti-virus software allow for the early detection and removal of these virii before they can cause any damage. I'd like to thank Michael for his contributions to this section.
First of all, I'd like to stress that different people have different requirements and different antivirus software have different pros and cons. Moreover, antivirus software are constantly changing. Today this might have the worst virus detection rate, but tomorrow things might be the other way around with the release of a new version. I'm not going to tell you which is the best software avaliable. What I'll do is to explain the neccessary requirements of a good antivirus software and let you decide for yourself.

Detection rate is of the greatest importance. An antivirus scanner must be able to detect a virus before the virus can be disinfected. A magnificant user interface and great scanning options are only accessories to the scanner. DETECTION must come first before disinfection can take place! This is why, detection rate is so important. Besides this, there are many other minor criteria to be considered. These are:

1. Scanning within compressed files
2. How often the scanner is updated
3. Compatibility with Windows 95 and Windows NT
4. Scanning speed
5. Ease of use

The last point is rather dubious. An antivirus scanner or programme might be very easy to use, but ease of use isn't as important as the virus detection rate.

Detection rates also vary depending on the test performed. Therefore, you need to choose the scanner that has a consistent but good detection rates in ALL the tests. It is perfectly fine to use multiple virus scanners as a backup just to be extra sure that there are no virii present. If one antivirus program detects a virus, you can try the other software to see if it is a false alarm. Using this method, you can also determine which antivirus programmes fail to detect certain virii.

The more common scanners in the market are:

01. Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus from Dr Solomon's Software Ltd in the UK
02. AntiViral Toolkit Pro from KAMI in Russia
03. Sophos Sweep from Sophos PLC in the UK
04. AVAST32 from ALWIL software in Czech
05. IBM AntiVirus from IBM in the US
06. F-PROT Professional from Command Software Systems in the US
07. Norton AntiVirus from Norton
08. McAfee VirusScan from McAfee
09. Virus Alert 4.10 from Looks Software System in Canada
10. PC-Cillin NT from TouchStone and Trend Micro in Taiwan

Take note that there are 2 versions of F-PROT Professional: one from Command Software Systems in the US and the other from Data Fellows in Findland. They have the same scanning engine but a different user interface. A new scan engine version 3.0 will be available in late October or early November 97. Virus signature update SIGN.DEF will be updated more frequently for scan engine version 3.0. At present the macro virus signature update MACRO.DEF is updated daily on Command Software and Data Fellows web site.

Norton Antivirus version 4.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT has just been released. Symantec has skipped version 3.0 because they want to synchronize the version number among different platforms.

Here is a collection of information of antivirus software for Windows NT. The same should also apply to Windows 95.

  • AntiVirus programmes for Windows NT that has been updated to support Microsoft Office 97 documents (as far as I know):

    01. Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit 7.76
    02. Norton AntiVirus 4.0
    03. AntiViral Toolkit Pro 3.0 Build 114
    04. IBM AntiVirus version 3.0N
    05. McAfee VirusScan 3.03
    06. Sophos Sweep 3.02
    07. F-PROT Professional 3.0 with scan engine 2.27A
    08. ALWIL AVAST32 version 2.0
    09. Cheyenne InocuLAN 4.0

  • AntiVirus programmes for Windows NT that can recursively scan multiple layers of compressed files (as far as I know):

    01. Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit 7.76
    02. IBM AntiVirus version 3.0N
    03. AntiViral Toolkit Pro 3.0 Build 114
    04. F-PROT Professional 3.0 with scan engine 2.27A

  • AntiVirus programmes for Windows NT with weekly updates:

    1. AntiViral Toolkit Pro 3.0 Build 114

  • AntiVirus programs for Windows NT with monthly updates by online download or by diskettes:

    01. Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit 7.76
    02. Norton AntiVirus 4.0
    03. IBM AntiVirus version 3.0N
    04. McAfee VirusScan 3.03 (GUI version)
    05. Sophos Sweep 3.02
    06. ALWIL AVAST32 version 2.0
    07. Cheyenne InocuLAN 4.0
    08. Intel LanDesk Virus Protect 1.7 (for NT Server)
    09. Virus Alert 4.10
    10. PC-cillin NT

  • AntiVirus programs for Windows NT with bi-monthly updates (more frequently when needed):

    1. F-PROT Professional 3.00 with scan engine version 2.27A (will be updated more frequently with scan engine version 3.0)
    2. ThunderByte AntiVirus 8.03

  • AntiVirus programmes for Windows NT with daily macro virus signature updates:

    1. F-PROT Professional 3.0 with scan engine version 2.27A

    Test results can be found in the April 1997 Issue of the US version of PC Magazine, and the March 1997 Edition of PC World US.

    For more information, you can visit the following sites for a comparative reviews of the various antivirus.

    Virus Bulletin
    Secure Computing
    University of Tampere
    Virus Test Center

    Study the various reviews and tests before you choose your anti-virus software. Also, try to keep in mind that a good viruscan will not be effective either, if the virus data files are not updated regularly. Virus updates are avaliable at the following sites:

    McAfee Viruscan Hourly Updates
    Norton Anti-Virus Definitions

    If this website is slow, click Here to access the Angelfire mirror.
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    Last modified on December 26, 1997